Colm Tóibín, David Cohen winner, Dullness

Is it a good thing to stand out? Anne McElvoy and guests explore the virtue of being dull.

• 44 mins

Jean-Paul Belmondo and the French New Wave

The French film star who burst onto the scene in 1960 in Godard's Breathless.

• 44 mins

Gloves

From python skin to Nintendo gaming, PPE to vegan materials: how gloves are evolving.

• 44 mins

Appeasement

How does Neville Chamberlain's capitulation to Hitler in 1938 affect politics in 2022?

• 44 mins

Adapting Molière

Liz Lochead is one of Anne McElvoy's guests discussing how to update Molière.

• 44 mins

Mélusine

The mermaid-like figure from medieval folklore is discussed by Shahidha Bari and guests.

• 44 mins

Mind-Altered States

Matthew Sweet and guests knock on the doors of perception.

• 44 mins

Writing Love: Sarah Hall, Monica Ali, Adam Mars-Jones

Shahidha Bari talks to authors about writing love stories set against troubling times.

• 44 mins

Paper

An exploration of the cultural and social history of paper.

• 44 mins

Touki Bouki

A close look at Djibril Diop Mambéty's classic 1973 film with Matthew Sweet and guests.

• 44 mins

Diverse Classical Music

Digging into the music of composers Joseph Bologne, Kikuko Kanai and Julia Perry.

• 44 mins

Yishai Sarid, Marking Holocaust Memorial Day 2022

Anne McElvoy talks to Israeli novelist Yishai Sarid & hears about new historical research.

• 44 mins

Asta Nielsen

Matthew Sweet and guests look at the Danish star of androgynous early romcoms and Hamlet.

• 44 mins

How to Create a Modernist Masterpiece

Will Self, Alexandra Harris, Kevin Le Gendre and Owen Hatherley build up a manifesto.

• 44 mins

Modernism around the World

Rana Mitter looks at Bauhaus in Delhi, Japanese and South African novels and Mexican art.

• 44 mins

Futurism

Matthew Sweet and guests look at the manifesto celebrating youth, technology and violence.

• 44 mins

Diverse Classical Music II

New research into music by Margaret Bonds, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Ali Osman, Isaac Hishow.

• 44 mins

Whale Watching

Rana Mitter dives into the world of whales and examines our relationship to marine life.

• 44 mins

Existential Risk

Planning and creating in the shadow of the doomsday clock with Shahidha Bari and guests.

• 44 mins

Stonehenge History

Anne McElvoy is joined by Neil Wilkin, Mike Pitts, Susan Greaney and Seren Griffiths.

• 44 mins

China, Freud, War and Sci-Fi

From AI and fan fiction to 1930s replica antiquities: new ways of thinking about China.

• 44 mins

Hitchhiking

Matthew Sweet considers examples from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Polish tokens.

• 44 mins

Pankaj Mishra, Research into Indian history

Pankaj Mishra discusses his new novel about four friends in an age of upheaval.

• 44 mins

Artists' models and fame

Egon Schiele's women, Whistler's Woman in White, new radio ballads. Shahidha Bari hosts.

• 44 mins

Perfecting the Body

Eugenics to cyborgs: Adam Rutherford, Clare Chambers, Xine Yao and Harry Parker discuss.

• 44 mins

Climate change, nature and art

Ingrid Pollard, Julian Perry, Patricia Dominguez, Will Abberley and Eleanor Barraclough.

• 44 mins

The Barbican, art and writing in 50s Britain

Lisa Mullen & guests mark the 40th anniversary of the opening of London's Barbican centre

• 44 mins

The Generation Gap

Writer Howard Jacobson, photographer Ruth Sutoyé talk family histories with Matthew Sweet

• 44 mins

Sisters

The Unthank sisters, Sally Alexander, Lucy Holland, Oyinkan Braithwaite and Shahidha Bari.

• 44 mins

New research into women's history

The Clean Break theatre company, sex strikes, East European feminism. Naomi Paxton hosts.

• 44 mins